Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar, said at the weekend in Abuja that the procurement process for Ibom Deep Sea Port, located in Akwa Sbom state, would commence soon.
Umar said this at the official submission of the Outline Business Case (OBC) for the project by the project Transaction Advisors, Messrs Felak Concept Ltd and Maritime Transport Business Solutions (Felak/MTBS).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Ministerial Project Development and Steering Committee for the project was inaugurated on Sept. 18. 2012.
The committee was inaugurated by the Minister of Transport with the mandate to deliver a deep sea port in Akwa Ibom by the end of 2015.
Umar said with the submission of the report, the ministry would take immediate steps to obtain necessary approvals to commence the procurement process for the project.
He said the advertisement would be placed, inviting investors from within and outside the country to express their interest.
“After that the necessary evaluation will be carried out with the transaction advisers.
”We have to work assiduously with the OBC document to ensure that the procurement processes commence as soon as possible”, the minister said.
Umar said the presentation of the OBC document was a demonstration of the political will and determination of the Federal Government and Akwa Ibom Government to ensure the success of the project. “The ministry, the transaction advisers and the Nigerian Ports Authority have worked assiduously to attain what we have achieved today.
“It took the committee and the transaction advisers, who are the consultants two years, to carry out this exercise and the time frame is justifiable, given the volume of report they have submitted,’’ Umar said.
He said the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) also had to evaluate the report.
Umar said the project was targeted to be completed by the end of 2015 but given the enormity of requirements involved, it was obviously impossible to start its procurement process much earlier.
The post Procurement process for Ibom Deep Sea Port to start soon – Minister appeared first on Daily Independent, Nigerian Newspaper.